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Month Archives: July 2016

by
Daniel Hart

July 25, 2016

Question: I was told that California’s Senate Bill 1146 will strip the state’s faith-based colleges and universities of their religious liberty to educate students according to their faith convictions. Is this something that FRC is fighting? How can I get involved?

FRC: SB 1146 is something that we are fighting to defeat. We wrote about it in our June 10th Washington Update. This bill is an attack on the religious liberty of Californians and could set a dangerous precedent for other states to enact similar laws restricting the religious freedom of faith-based colleges and universities to set their own policies. Please go to the “Oppose SB 1146” website to learn how you can help stop this bill from becoming law.

by
Johnathan Taylor

July 22, 2016

After Judge Carlton Reeves’ stubborn decision preventing his state’s religious freedom law from taking effect several weeks ago, Mississippi Governor Phil Bryant notified the court he would be swiftly appealing the ruling. The district court’s ruling had prevented H.B. 1523 from being applied to the people of Mississippi, meaning that clerks in state offices could now be forced to issue marriage licenses to those seeking same-sex unions, despite deep religious convictions that the clerks may have against aiding in a union that consists of two people of the same sex.

House Bill 1523 is a state law signed by Governor Bryant that allows a subset of business entities and government employees to opt out of being forced to violate their beliefs by participating in same-sex marriages, while mandating that the authorities ensure the couple still receive their services or benefits from some other government actor. The law seeks to protect religious organizations that have moral opposition to the practice of aiding in a process that promotes a lifestyle that goes against their religious core values. H.B. 1523 seeks to protect their core beliefs: That marriage is only between a man and a woman, that sex should only take place in such a marriage, and that a person’s gender is determined at birth and cannot be altered. It allows state clerks to exercise their religious freedom by not issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples, and protects citizens of faith who are merchants by ensuring that they can still exercise their religious freedom. With these provisions, this law is a continuation of Mississippi’s long standing history of protecting religious freedom.

In the past, the state of Mississippi has exempted people who oppose all war for religious reasons from having to enter the draft. Mississippi has also exempted pro-life health care workers from performing some duties that are associated with terminating pregnancies. In his court filing opposing the renegade district court decision, Governor Bryant noted “[i]t is perfectly acceptable for the government to choose the conscientious scruples that it will protect and accommodate, while withholding those protections and accommodations from other deeply held beliefs.” Moreover, H.B. 1523 is not a drastic change in state law, he observes, because Mississippi lacks sexual orientation anti-discrimination laws. Thus, even without H.B. 1523, Mississippians in theory could suffer all sorts of adverse action because of their sexual orientation. Yet the fact that the opponents of H.B. 1523 can’t point to a record of this occurring shows they are hyping up supposed problems which do not exist.

Thankfully, Governor Bryant strongly disagreed with the outcome-based decision of Judge Reeves. He rightly pointed out that H.B. 1523’s challengers will not be affected if the law takes effect during the appeal period, as they have shown no real, concrete injury to themselves. Thus, his request that H.B. 1523 be applied to the people of Mississippi while its appeal is ongoing is quite sensible.

by
Daniel Hart

July 18, 2016

Question: Ok, so the House passed the Conscience Protection Act last week. Doesn’t the Senate have to do so as well, and then the President sign it? If Obama vetoes, will there be an override? If the above is true, why is FRC so happy at this point?

FRC: The Senate does have to pass the Conscience Protection Act (CPA). We don’t have the votes to override a veto by President Obama. However, this is the first time since 2004 that Congress has voted on conscience. This CPA vote gets members on record. In addition, if the Senate passes CPA, it builds momentum and puts pressure on President Obama. Finally, if support for CPA remains in Congress, then it hopefully has a strong chance of becoming law if we have a pro-life president in the future.

by
Travis Weber

July 15, 2016

We are glad to see last week’s article in The Economistaccurately diagnosing the hypocrisy surrounding religious freedom which has infected the agitating political Left in the last several years. This reputable magazine has pinpointed the biggest trouble of the current political and policy dynamic surrounding religious freedom: the progressive Left just can’t bring itself to support traditional Christian claims of religious freedom—even when those claims are brought under the same laws and legal standards as others which modern liberals have supported.

As Family Research Council has consistently made clear, religious freedom laws have historically had bipartisan consensus. Sadly, this is no longer true, as in the last several years the progressive Left has abandoned its support for First Amendment principles in favor of new policy goals. Meanwhile, in an ironic twist, conservatives are attacked as only supporting religious liberty when it concerns them. We have shown this not to be true. Now, we are thankful The Economist has shed additional light on the religious freedom debate.

by
Daniel Hart

July 15, 2016

Dear Friends,

People are not problems to be solved, they are souls to be loved. In our times, in which deadly mass violence seems to occur on almost a weekly basis, this powerful Christian principle is something that desperately needs to be lived out and spread to others.

In today’s society, huge swaths of people live insular lives fed by non-stop media exposure, materialism, and a host of false ideologies, hoping that these things will somehow fill the God-sized hole in their hearts. Believers know that it is only in giving all the glory to our Creator and living out a life of love as Christ did that brings us true happiness.

This means that as Christians, we will have to get out of our comfort zones and reach out as never before to those in need, whether they be in our schools, in our workplaces, in the grocery store, and even those we may encounter on the streets. As Christ said in Luke 10:2, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few.” Don’t be afraid to be a laborer for the Lord and witness to the truth in love.

Thank you for your prayers and for your continued support of FRC and the family.

by
Peter Sprigg

July 6, 2016

Noting the one-year anniversary of the 2015 Supreme Court decision redefining marriage to include same-sex couples, the Gallup organization recently released poll data on how many Americans self-identify as LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender), and how many of those are now in legally recognized civil marriages.

Marriages after Obergefell

“Same-Sex Marriages Up One Year After Supreme Court Verdict” was the headline Gallup used, reporting that “approximately 123,000 same-sex marriages have taken place since the Obergefell v. Hodges decision.” Some news outlet emphasized the growth of such relationships even more strongly, with Time saying they are “Way Up” and The Atlantic referring to “a surge in same-sex marriages in all 50 states.”

One would hardly have expected it to be otherwise, given that the Court had thrown open a door that had been closed by the state constitutions of thirty states. (Due to lower court decisions, however, only 13 states were still denying marriage licenses to same-sex couples by the time the Supreme Court ruled.)

The real news in the Gallup survey—missed by virtually every news outlet that reported on it—is not how many same-sex couples have now obtained civil marriages, but how few.

LGBT Adults Who Are Married

“Gallup currently estimates 3.9% of U.S. adults are lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender,” the report says. How many of those are married? “Currently, 9.6% of LGBT adults report being married to a same-sex spouse.”

Wait a minute—after all the hullabaloo over same-sex marriage, all the insistence that marriage was essential to affirm the dignity of lesbian and gay Americans—less than one in ten have even bothered to take advantage of this critical new “right?”

“Well,” you may point out, “adults can be as young as 18 years old. They may not feel ready to marry, or they may not have found the right person yet, or they may be between relationships. Not all heterosexual adults are married at any given time, either.”

All this is true—so let’s compare the 9.6% of “LGBT adults” who are in same-sex marriages with the percentage of the general population (the vast majority heterosexual) who are married. That figure has been in decline for decades—partly because people are waiting longer to marry, partly because of an increase in cohabitation outside of marriage, and partly because of an increase in divorce.

In fact, a federal government report issued in 2014 made headlines: “Number of Unmarried Americans Now Over 50 Percent.” According to NewsMax, “the Bureau of Labor Statistics finds that the number of Americans over the age of 16 who are unmarried leapt from 37.4 percent in 1974 to 50.2 percent today.” Thus, only 49.8% (roughly five out of ten) were married.

Yet if five out of ten heterosexuals are married, and only one out of ten “LGBT” adults is in a same-sex marriage, this suggests that LGBT Americans are only one-fifth as likely to marry as are heterosexuals.

Same-Sex Couples Who Are Married

“Perhaps,” you may respond, “it’s just harder for LGBT people to find partners than for heterosexuals. What about the marriage rates among people who have already found a partner they are living with?”

The Gallup report offered data on that question as well—in fact, it led with it, beginning its report by declaring, “The proportion of same-sex cohabiting couples who are married has increased from 38% to 49% in the year since the U.S. Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage nationwide.”

However, 49% being married means that 51% of “same-sex cohabiting couples”—an outright majority, although a slim one—are still “living together but not married.”

What about all the arguments that legal civil marriage was absolutely essential to same-sex couples, because it is the only way to provide for inheritance rights, and medical decision-making, and over a thousand other “benefits” attached to marriage under federal law? It looks like most same-sex couples can do without civil marriage after all.

“Lots of opposite-sex couples cohabit instead of marrying, too,” you may say, and that is true. According to the Census Bureau, in 2015 there were 8.3 million households with opposite-sex unmarried couples—and 60 million married couples. That means that about 88% of opposite-sex couples living together were married, vs. only 12% that were cohabiting without marriage.

If the percentage of same-sex couples who reject marriage (by cohabiting instead) is 51%, and the percentage of the general public who do the same thing is only 12%, this suggests that those in homosexual relationships are over four times more likely to reject marriage than those in heterosexual relationships are.

Handling Data

I will concede that making precisely accurate comparisons between “LGBT Americans” and non-LGBT persons using such data is sometimes a challenge. First, unless it is explicitly separated out, data for the general public includesLGBT persons (although they are only a small fraction—about one in twenty-five).

The second issue—which Gallup may want to consider in its future reports—is that lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender persons are four different populations, which really ought to be addressed separately. They tend to be lumped together only because they are perceived as having common political interests (in challenging traditional norms for their sex), not because they share sociological characteristics. Gallup distinguished them only in part, by noting, “Males who identify as LGBT are more likely than females who identify as LGBT to report being married to a same-sex spouse (10.5% vs. 8.8%, respectively).”

“B” and “T” Americans and Opposite-Sex Marriages

There is no reason to expect that bisexual or transgender persons would necessarily seek marriage to a person of the same sex (although they might). It is just as likely that they would be married to someone of the opposite sex (although even defining who the opposite sex is could be problematic in the case of transgender persons).

This may help explain perhaps the most startling finding in the Gallup report, which none of the media reports even picked up on. It is this: more “LGBT Americans” are married to an opposite-sex spouse than to a same-sex one. Gallup reports that 13.6% of “LGBT Americans” are married to an opposite-sex spouse—a number 42% higher than the 9.6% of “LGBT Americans” now legally married to a same-sex spouse.

To interpret this figure, it would be helpful if Gallup had released more data specifically on those who identify as bisexual (sexually attracted to both males and females)—what percentage of “LGBT Americans” are actually “B,” and what percentage of just the “B’s” are married to or living with a same-sex vs. an opposite-sex partner. A recent federal report based on the National Survey of Family Growth said that self-identified bisexuals may actually outnumber self-identified homosexuals—narrowly among men (2.0% of the population vs. 1.9%) and widely among women (5.5% to 1.3%).

Gallup did report that 5% of LGBT’s are living with an opposite-sex partner outside of marriage. These cohabitors are 27% of the opposite-sex couples in the LGBT population, which means that even “LGBT Americans” in opposite-sex relationships are only about half as likely to reject marriage in favor of cohabitation as those in same-sex relationships.

Perhaps the most intriguing of all would be to learn how many people in the Gallup survey identify as “gay” or “lesbian,” yet are married to someone of the opposite sex. Could it be that some people place fidelity to a vow they have made to a husband or wife ahead of solidarity with their “sexual orientation?” If this number is anything other than zero, it would put the lie to Justice Anthony’s Kennedy’s assumption that one-man-one-woman marriage laws prevent “gay” or “lesbian” persons from marrying at all.

One thing should now be clear—the drive to redefine the institution of marriage was not really about marriage. The data from the Gallup report prove that most people with same-sex sexual attractions do not “need,” and do not even want, to marry. The primary purpose of redefining marriage was not to gain access to the institution of marriage, but to put the official governmental stamp of approval on homosexual relationships by declaring them identical to heterosexual ones, even though they clearly are not.

by
Travis Weber

July 1, 2016

Judge Reeves’ ruling striking down individual rights protections in Mississippi’s HB 1523 is a travesty for the rule of law and shows what happens when the judicial process justifies the means with the ends. It is quite unfortunate that the judge can’t see (despite the fact that no same-sex couple has been denied anything by Mississippi in the wake of Obergefell v. Hodges) that the law merely protects people from government coercion. It is doubly unfortunate that in his ruling, the judge’s denigrating and dismissive references to “Christians” exhibits an animus toward the people he is entrusted to rule over that is barely bottled up.

On the issue of standing, Judge Reeves can try to cover his reasoning in a legal swamp all he wants, but at the end of the day, his ruling pulls the law to its breaking point in order to find an actual, real injury to anyone at all. In reality, no one has been concretely affected by this law. That’s why he has to contort the matter to find an injury where someone “feels” affected. Yes, feelings get hurt in a democracy (this happens innumerable ways every day, which average American understand) but that’s part of living in a diverse country. Despite citing the Supreme Court’s Establishment Clause decision Town of Greece v. Galloway multiple times, he conveniently forgot to cite Justice Kennedy’s reminder in that case that “offense … does not equate to coercion.” Instead, Judge Reeves has opted in essence to deny the people their own right to govern. With such rulings, one can’t blame them with being fed up with federal judges and the elites who think like them.

Judge Reeves errs further in searching the woodwork to find constitutional violations. He admitted “discerning the actual motivation behind a bill can be treacherous.” He should have followed his own admonition. Instead, he somehow finds HB 1523 to be a violation of the Establishment Clause, despite the fact that it imposes no coercive religious requirement on anybody! (Town of Greece again relevant here). He claims that since the law doesn’t protect every type of Christian religious belief out there, it’s somehow invalid.

Yet amazingly, at the same time, the court dismisses the fact that members of non-Christian faiths also oppose same-sex marriage and would be protected by HB 1523 by arguing that those people don’t really believe their own religion:

Every group has its iconoclasts. The larger the group, the more likely it will have someone who believes the sun revolves around the Earth, a doctor who thinks smoking unproblematic, or a Unitarian opposed to same-sex religious marriage. But most people in a group share most of that group’s beliefs.

Aside from improperly delving into doctrine itself, the court’s statement is irrelevant, and by recognizing that some non-Christians would be protected by this law, it contradicts its entire grounding for this decision (that this is really just about the protection of Christians).

Under Judge Reeves’ thinking, any tailored conscience or religious rights protections would be invalid.

Additionally, his analysis of federal conscience protections is just flat wrong. He says the analogy of HB 1523 to these protections in 42 U.S.C.§ 300a-7is not appropriate because they are “neutral” in that they protect pro-life and pro-abortion doctors, and cites to subsections c, d, and e of the statute. However, only subsection c makes reference to protection of both sides of the issue. Subsections d, e, (and a) protect doctors and facilities opposed to abortion from being forced to participate in it, and do not make mention of any pro-abortion views. The fact is that these conscience protections and similar types of exemptions have long been a part of our pluralistic society, and show how diverse people can live side-by-side while conscience is honored. When conscience is threatened, it can be protected. Yet Judge Reeves would stifle consciences that need protection in the name of protecting against some imaginary harm. He might be asked: Exactly whose consciences are being violated that he feels need additional protection in HB 1523?

In the midst of this long, contorted, and unfortunate ruling (supposedly based in part on the Establishment Clause), Judge Reeves could have at least cited the Supreme Court’s well-known pronouncement on this principle in West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette decades ago:

“If there is any fixed star in our constitutional constellation, it is that no official, high or petty, can prescribe what shall be orthodox in politics, nationalism, religion, or other matters of opinion or force citizens to confess by word or act their faith therein.”

Instead, he has imposed his own orthodoxy on them and heaped even more disenfranchisement on the heads of the people of Mississippi. “You may not like Obergefell,” the judge seems to say, “but I’m not even going to allow you to protect your own liberty in the face of it.”